FEBRUARY HATCH-A-LONG come join in

[hunt4meat]

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1st off the eggs are in a styrofoam egg carton with the bottoms cut out of each compartment. Instead of opening the bator and handling each egg several time daily,I am placing a 2x4 under 1 side of the bator letting it set for a few hours, then removing it and setting flat for a few hours, then putting it under the other side for a few hours, then removing it and flat for a few hours... I think you should get the picture. Kinda like a manual automatic egg turner.

 

[hipeatall]

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Oh, you have Faverolles! Are they LF or Bantam? Have you been reading the Faverolles thread? Its under the Breed, Genetics & Showing section of the index - you should check it out. Good hatching vibes coming at you!

Hi The Chick on The Hill

My eggs are all LF Faverolles... 3 from my flock and 23 from BYC'er CloverleafFarm. CloverleafFarm was wonderful to buy eggs from... great communication, so friendly, really incredible packing of the eggs and super fast ship - well, I couldn't be happier!
I have 5 LF Faverolles in my flock of 20. I was fortunate enough to get 4 day old chicks from BYC'er pasofinofarm last spring. I got to visit pasofinofarm at her farm, Nonsuch Farm, to pick up the chicks since she is only 4 hours away from me... she has a beautiful farm and was so incredibly great to work with... she even let me milk one of her cows! From the 4 I got from pasofinofarm, I ended up with 1 gorgeous white roo and 3 lovely salmon hens. I look forward to getting more wonderful birds from her! The fifth Faverolles I have is from Ideal hatchery and, well how do I say this, thank goodness she has a great personality.
I appreciate the heads up about the Faverolles thread. I actually read the entire thread the other day... 60 something pages at that time... I subscribed to the thread so now I get the updates... oh my I'm a chicken freak!
Thank you soooo much for the good hatching vibes!

 

[MuranoFarms]

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You are fine!!!!!! A lot of people do they dry incubation method and go much lower then that! Here's a good discussion about humidity: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=113681

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You're fine also! Just don't do it again! lol
My grounding plug tripped one morning and the bator was off for 3 hours, I still hatched 5 out of 6 shipped eggs (from upintheholler on here)




I'm joining the hatch thread!

(please?) I set 8 beautiful BCM eggs last night from Belgian Lady. I also set 10 'who knows what they heck they are' that I got at the farmers market. I bought a dozen and was assured they had a roo. I broke open 2 just to check and they were fertile (and yummy!) Maybe it's just me, but I haven't had as high a hatch rate with small batches. I've found that when the bator is full (as opposed to only 6 eggs in there) my hatch % is higher. So I decided to try the 'pot luck' market eggs. lol...who knows, maybe I'll end up with something really cool!

 

[MuranoFarms]

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This method works well, very good explanation! If you do this though, you'll want to use a wet sponge instead of the water wells in the incubator. Otherwise whenever you prop each side, the water runs out the bottom and humidity drops.

 

[hunt4meat]

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Found this out the hard way. to solve the prob, I just cut a coke can in 1/2 and used the bottom 1/2 as a water dish, and stuffed a couple paper towles in there to hold the water. I will add another can and towles later to up the humidity. I am just guessing on humidity due to not having a humidity checker, but as long as there is a pan of water I should be fine, right?

 

[MuranoFarms]

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Take the can out before they go into lockdown so they don't cut themselves on it. You can use the wells again at that point since you wont be propping it during lockdown.
It should be ok. If condensation starts to form, its way too high. Monitor your air cells. They should be getting bigger throughout the incubation period, but not too quickly. There's a diagram around here somewhere. I'll see if can find it.

 

[Madcap621]

Guess I should update

My bator [Hova-Bator still air - I added a 'puter fan - w/auto turner] is holding temp and humidity and doing great. My plan is to keep hands off unless I have a problem, get the new Suro20 up and running, tweak as needed for a few days, [use as b/u if needed]. THEN candle & transfer the [17 B-Welsummer] eggs on Monday, day 10.

My candling record's not great & I'm not going to experiment with these eggs.

In the meantime, will be cleaning out the 'no-longer-needed' hatcher and experiment with the accidentally happened on fact that wet cardboard egg carton will make a recalcitrant RH Jump to 80-90% when try as I might, couldn't get it higher than mid 40s!!

Good luck everybody!

 

[Lop333]

I'm in I have eggs in the batorand eggs hatching in another lol

 

[mstricer]

I'm on day 12. Have 8 EE's or had, took one out. 3 look questionable but still look like they have good veins not as developed as others.

 

[hipeatall]

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1st off the eggs are in a styrofoam egg carton with the bottoms cut out of each compartment. Instead of opening the bator and handling each egg several time daily,I am placing a 2x4 under 1 side of the bator letting it set for a few hours, then removing it and setting flat for a few hours, then putting it under the other side for a few hours, then removing it and flat for a few hours... I think you should get the picture. Kinda like a manual automatic egg turner.

Evidently the motor on my brand spankin' new turner died this morning... already have a replacement on the way... but I'm thinking this styrofoam egg carton turner idea sounds great... I'm gonna give it a try!